


Pharos

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Badass and Little Kid, Extra Treat, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-09 12:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Hera had given orders for them to leave as soon as the ship was repaired, whether or not she'd returned.





	Pharos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Irusu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irusu/gifts).



The rendezvous was supposed to be at a set of galactic coordinates that were unspecified but looked to be near or at Sullust. Hera had memorized the coordinates, and she'd programmed them as a random string inside Chopper which the rest of the team could activate with the right pass phrase ("Ezra's socks") and which no one else, not even Chopper himself, could otherwise access. She'd left her team with the tools to move on without her if she couldn't make it back to the ship alive. She'd given orders for them to leave before the Imperials found them again.

She had to make it back alive.

They'd been followed as they'd fled Hoth, winding up here on this rocky, dead world, graveyard to a forgotten fleet that must have rained down like holy fire during the Clone Wars. Hera ought to be inside the _Ghost_ now, making the last repairs with her droid. Instead, she was lost in a maze of hulking, broken ships without a working commlink, and as soon as her ship was fixed, she'd be stranded. But she wasn't alone, and that was why she absolutely had to find her way back.

"We already came this way." Jacen stared at the smashed hull of a fighter. "We passed this one already."

She didn't ask if he was sure. Even in the growing darkness, he was always sure. He knew ships even better than she did. Hera was so proud of him. "Do you remember which way we turned last time?"

"No." He yawned, worn out with all the walking. She hadn't meant to bring him outside at all, but the ship's engines had caught on fire and they'd evacuated to be safe until the fire was put out. His curiosity had pulled him into the labyrinthine tomb of fallen droid fighters and Republic Y-Wings while everyone else had worked on saving the _Ghost_.

"All right. Let's stand still and think a minute. Why don't you sit?" She took a seat on the hard ground that was growing colder by the minute. The planet held on to its ancient atmosphere, an artifact of its more verdant youth, which meant they could breathe. It wasn't as good at buffering the surface from the temperature swing now that the sun was down, and would stay down for the next twenty hours. She might not have to worry about being stranded here. They might freeze to death tonight instead.

Hera put the worry aside and thought hard. She had her blaster. She could send up a few shots as soon as it was full night, and hope they'd been spotted. She could use it to shoot some of the metal hulks around them and create something warm to huddle against. They could even crawl inside one of the more intact vessels, hoping for protection against the cold, but that meant giving up any hope of rejoining their friends. She'd already looked inside several ships for working communications systems, but the power cells were long since depleted. More worrisomely, she'd heard noises inside the old ships, and she was forced to wonder if a few members of the droid army whirred along in a low power mode waiting to reanimate and stalk the darkened piles of wreckage in search of organic prey. Were there organic scavengers, the last remnants of life on this world, spending their dwindling days cracking into the sun-preserved tombs of fallen clones to gnaw at their bones?

If she was here alone, she'd already have three survival plans in the works, all of them based on the assumption she wasn't getting home and might not be rescued for months or for the rest of her life, whichever came first. She wasn't alone, though. She had to get home.

The way out of a maze was to pick a direction and keep turning that way until you were outside. She'd tried to keep right, which had only brought them back here. Jacen wouldn't be able to keep walking much longer. He was still little enough for her to carry, but he was getting big enough that it would exhaust her.

"Okay, break's over, little guy." She got to her feet and helped him up, absently dusting off his pants. "It's a shower for you when we get back."

His lips made a pout but he didn't argue.

"I want to take a left this time." She looked at him. She didn't like relying on him like this, but her choices were dwindling. "What do you think?"

Like it or not, they'd done this before. Jacen shut his eyes. Then he said, "Left is good."

Hera took his hand and led him to the left, keeping an eye on the ships they passed this time. Full dark was coming. She was almost ready to use her blaster as a flare. Jacen stopped, his small hand holding her. "Not this way."

She didn't ask if he was sure. He was always sure. He pulled on her hand towards a narrow tunnel created by two ships that had smashed into each other and fallen here together. They had not come this way before, she was positive. The channel looked treacherous, pitch black inside with a small glimpse of dim light beyond.

Hera hesitated at the opening, a jagged crunch of two hulls damaged beyond repair. She really, really hated relying on him for this. In a better, kinder universe, she wouldn't have to. "Jacen?"

"What?"

She took a breath. "What does Daddy say?"

He closed his eyes again. "Daddy says no cheating by asking him."

"He would."

Jacen pointed down towards the end of the dark tunnel. "But he said it from over there."

"Right," Hera said, because the things she wanted to say instead weren't the things she could say to a five year old. "Let's go."

They made their way through the darkness together, hands tightly clasped. Jacen wasn't afraid, not of stumbling in the darkness, not of being abandoned by their friends on Hera's own orders. He was never afraid of anything. She was glad for that. She could be scared for both of them, and she was long used to keeping the fear off her face, out of her voice, and hidden where no one else could find it. When she heard a skittering creak pass over their heads, she swallowed the fear, nourished herself on the cold meal, and squeezed Jacen's hand.

The dim light grew as they approached the end of the wreck. They emerged, and Hera could make out a brighter light just beyond another crash. The _Ghost_ sat almost hidden behind the larger ship, its floodlamps lit, shining like a beacon nestled inside a cup. The atmosphere held no haze nor cloud to reflect the glow from the sky. She'd have walked right by, merely two ships away, and never seen them. With the floods on, they would surely have missed her desperate flares.

Relieved, she paused for a moment at the end of the tunnel. Jacen had said his dad was waiting for them here. She liked knowing where he was, even if the only evidence she had was her child's assurance. For years, she'd hoped to hear what he did, see some smoky shadow beside her, but she didn't have the knack and there was no way to use a sense she'd never possessed. With a sigh, she picked Jacen up and hurried in case the ship was ready to leave.

Zeb waited for her outside. "I wanted to look for you," he said, "but Kallus figured you'd be back before I was and then you'd have to come find me, and there was no sense in us all getting lost."

"I told you to take off the moment the ship was ready even if we weren't back." The reprimand was meaningless, and his snort let her know he understood. Her friends would personally rip the engines off rather than abandon the two of them even if she'd given them direct orders otherwise.

They boarded the hatchway together and Zeb closed it behind them as Hera set Jacen down and pointed towards the showers.

"Couldn't. The ship wasn't ready yet," Zeb said, watching the boy climb up the ladder. "It was missing an important part."

"Not the manifold?" Hera asked wearily. "I'm sure we can scavenge something from the wrecks outside, but we'll need light." Waiting until morning would be dangerous. The Imperials were still tracking them.

"Nah, the manifold's fine. We were missing the Captain." He grinned at her.

"Then all the pieces are back in place," she said with a returning smile. "Tell Chopper to get us off this rock."

Zeb headed to the cockpit. Hera waited for a moment in the cargo bay, listening to the sounds of her ship coming to life around her. She almost hadn't made it home. If she'd been out there alone, she wouldn't have.

"Thanks," she said to the air quietly.

She didn't hear the "You're welcome." She never did. Instead she felt a warm shiver pass through her entire body, like a hug inside her soul, and that was enough.


End file.
